"A Beverage Distributor Charges $60 per Case for 1 to 5 Cases" — GMAT® Worked Solution
From Episode 43 of Real GMAT® Problems (The GMAT® Strategy Podcast). For the full strategy behind GMAT® word problems, read: GMAT® Word Problems: Half Math, Half English, and the Setup That Prevents Translation Mistakes.
The Problem
Source: Official Guide for GMAT® Review, 11th Edition
The distributor of cases of a certain beverage charges $60 per case for orders of 1 to 5 cases, $50 per case for orders of 6 to 20 cases, and $45 per case for orders of more than 20 cases. If the distributor filled three orders — one for 3 cases of the beverage, one for 11 cases of the beverage, and one for 30 cases of the beverage — what was the total amount the distributor charged for the orders?
(A) $1,960
(B) $2,000
(C) $2,040
(D) $2,080
(E) $2,280
Half Math, Half English Setup
Pricing brackets first.
- 1 to 5 cases = $60 each
- 6 to 20 cases = $50 each
- more than 20 cases = $45 each
Now the orders.
- Order A: 3 cases
- Order B: 11 cases
- Order C: 30 cases
The question.
- total charge across all three orders = ?
A Key Read: Siloed, Not Cumulative
This is the moment that decides the question.
The pricing is siloed. Each order, taken as a whole, gets one rate based on its total size. Order C — 30 cases — falls into the "more than 20" bracket. The whole order is priced at $45 per case. There is no stepping down from $60 to $50 to $45 across the case count.
Some real-world pricing structures are cumulative. The first 5 cases would pay $60, the next 15 would pay $50, and any beyond that would pay $45. This problem is not set up that way. The brackets describe order size, not cumulative case count.
A useful tell: the brackets describe orders ("orders of 1 to 5 cases"), not individual cases. That language is the cue that the rate applies to the order as a unit.
Step 1: Match Each Order to Its Bracket
| Order | Cases | Bracket | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 3 | 1 to 5 | $60 |
| B | 11 | 6 to 20 | $50 |
| C | 30 | more than 20 | $45 |
Step 2: Compute Each Order's Charge
Order A: 3 × $60 = $180
Order B: 11 × $50 = $550
Order C: 30 × $45.
| 4 5 | |
|---|---|
| × | 3 0 |
A quick way: 30 × 45 = 3 × 45 with a zero appended. 3 × 45 = 135. Append a zero: 1,350.
Step 3: Add the Three Charges
180 + 550 + 1,350 = ?
180 + 550 = 730.
730 + 1,350 = 2,080.
The total is $2,080.
The answer is (D).
Why This Problem Matters
This problem misses at roughly twice the rate of the warm-up — even though the steps are arithmetically simpler. That is worth pausing on.
Nearly all of the wrong answers cluster on (E) $2,280. That number comes from interpreting the pricing as cumulative — splitting Order C across the brackets so that the first 5 cases pay $60, the next 15 pay $50, and the last 10 pay $45. Doing the math on that interpretation lands at $2,280 instead of $2,080.
The mistake is not arithmetic. It is translation. The math on the wrong interpretation is being done correctly. People are landing on a clean, internally consistent number — it is just the answer to a different question.
The pattern repeats across word problems on the GMAT®. When the setup describes a structure (pricing, scoring, rates, allowances, fees), there is almost always a moment in the prose where the structure is defined unambiguously. The half math, half English step is where that definition gets captured. Once "1 to 5 cases = $60 each" is on the page — with the language of the prompt preserved — the cumulative interpretation usually does not come up.
If this question was a miss the first time, the takeaway is probably about the setup more than the arithmetic. The next time a problem describes brackets, write the bracket structure verbatim before doing any math. The siloed-vs-cumulative read becomes much easier to make from there.
Next problem: In a Class of 30 Students, 2 Did Not Borrow Any Books — GMAT® Worked Solution
Back to the strategy article: GMAT® Word Problems: Half Math, Half English, and the Setup That Prevents Translation Mistakes
Episode page: Real GMAT® Problems — Ep. 43 — Word Problems